One of Unijui’s main responsibilities is to contribute to the country’s scientific and technological development through research. The university invests in the strengthening of Research Groups, hereby stimulating regional exchange, training networks of researchers, communication with businesses, national and international scientific cooperation, and scientific publications in renowned international journals. The Research Groups operate within the Master’s and Doctorate courses and they are specifically dedicated to: education, health, engineering, law, development, and environmental systems.

The institution strives to assist researchers by making support committees more accessible to help to expand the projects, preparation prior to submission to academic writing agencies, the protection of intellectual property and transferring of technology, the protection of the research subjects, and adherence to ethical guidelines regarding animal experimentation. Unijuí is full of opportunities for undergraduate, Master’s and Doctorate students, thus promoting their involvement in research projects supervised by qualified researchers, as well as their participation in national and international scientific events.

Entrepreneurship and Regional Development

Criactec - Technological Innovation Business Incubator

For over 17 years, the university has been growing through the use of Criatec, or Business Incubator for Technological Innovation, which promotes entrepreneurship and innovation. Thus, Criatec offers a physical and technological infrastructure as well as a package of services to support the creation and development of startups, whose technologies add value to businesses. Within this framework, the university sponsors dozens of companies in various stages of their development, not just in the cities of Ijuí and Santa Rosa, but also across the entire State of Rio Grande do Sul. Unijuí also supports the establishment and development of associative groups with the goal of social inclusion and generating jobs and income, all through the Solidarity-based Economy and Social Technology Incubator, or Itecsol.

Unijuí’s Innovation + Center

It is part of the Smart Cities project, which unites science, entrepreneurship, creativity, and technology towards building more creative and sustainable cities. Currently, the Innovation + Center has five fully active spaces:

● the IoT Development Lab, for the purpose of developing, experimenting, interacting, testing, and understanding the Internet of Things;

● the Smart Grid Lab, a maker environment equipped with tech and tools to potencialize knowledge acquisition;

● the Ideation Space, to enhance creativity and the innovation process;

● the Coworking Space, for shared use of professionals and companies of a broad range of fields;

● the Augmented Reality Room, for developing new solutions and applications, as well as training and learning programmes.